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The Least of These: Those without Clean Water and Sanitation

By
Randy Alcorn
| January 2, 2013

In today’s blog we ask the question again: how can we as Christians help the most vulnerable people in the world? (See my previous blogs in the series we’re calling The Least of These.) This post focuses on those who lack access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation.

According to the World Health Organization, 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Christians have a special responsibility (and privilege) to care for those affected, who are in desperate need of sanitation and salvation.

Access to clean water is one first step a community must take to overcome poverty. Children who spend their mornings fetching water often miss school. Also, drinking dirty water can infect children with preventable diseases that then keep them out of school.

In this four-minute video from Living Water International, a pastor from India explains how the gift of clean water allowed the gospel to spread in the midst of opposition:

Approximately 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This is around 5,000 deaths a day.

Diarrheal diseases can be reduced by more than 40 percent through the simple practice of washing hands with soap and water.

Water-related diseases are the second biggest killer of children worldwide. Number one is acute respiratory infections, such as tuberculosis.

Approximately 97.5 percent of the water on earth is saltwater. If all the world's water could fit in an average bucket, only 1 teaspoon would be drinkable.

Nearly 90 percent of water-related diseases are due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; and most victims are children in developing countries.

The average person in the developing world uses a little more than 2.5 gallons of water each day for drinking, washing and cooking. Whereas the average person in the developed world uses 13 gallons per day only for toilet flushing.

How Can You Get Involved?

Giving financially to improve sanitation in developing companies is one of the most effective ways to help. According to the World Health Organization, every $1 invested in improved sanitation translates into an average return of $9. Those benefits are experienced specifically by poor children and in the disadvantaged communities that need them most.

Providing clean water not only offers numerous physical benefits for people, but also opens the door for the gospel, so people can hear about Jesus, and quench their spiritual thirst: “Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13).

If you’ve found our resources to be helpful, we invite you to consider making a one-time or recurring donation. It’s the generous support of our ministry partners that enables us to continue our eternity-shaping work.

However, we’re here to serve everyone without cost, so please don’t feel obligated to give, but only as the Lord directs. As Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).